


Believing is Everything

by darkdropout



Category: Arashi (Band), Drop Dead Fred (1991)
Genre: Imaginary Friends, It also has comedy in it!, M/M, No imaginary friends were harmed in the making of this fic!, Unhappy childhood and mistreatment, drop dead fred au, mentions of previous parental death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 08:37:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13360704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darkdropout/pseuds/darkdropout
Summary: Based on the movie "Drop Dead Fred". An unhappy salaryman gets a lift from the return of his imaginary friend.





	Believing is Everything

**Author's Note:**

  * For [astrangerenters](https://archiveofourown.org/users/astrangerenters/gifts).



> Written for this year's [aibaexchange](https://aibaexchange.dreamwidth.org/) 2017!

_“SATOSHI!”_

_Ohno Satoshi, seven years old, stops in his tracks, frozen in place by the piercing voice of his aunt._

_“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?”_

_Satoshi begins to shake his head vigorously in denial, but it’s of little use. His aunt is fast approaching across the front garden, fury radiating off her in a way that makes the boy’s knees start to wobble underneath him._

_He drops the shovel he’s holding into the dirt beside him. It’s too late to run, and even if it wasn’t, running almost always makes things worse. He tries to open his mouth, to say something in protest, to defend himself – but as usual when faced with his aunt, the words stay caught in his throat._

_Just when he feels as if the ground is about to fall away beneath him, there’s sudden warmth beside him – a familiar, breathy giggle in his ear. He feels a sudden burst of strength._

_He opens his mouth again and this time words come tumbling out just as his aunt reaches him._

_“It wasn’t me!” he says, even as she grabs him roughly by the ear and yanks._

_“It wasn’t me!” he yelps again. “It was Aiba-chan! He wanted to try an experiment to –”_

_She yanks harder and Satoshi’s explanation is replaced by a wail of pain._

_“Lying boy,” she says disdainfully, her grip unrelenting even as Satoshi’s face contorts, his ear throbbing where it’s twisted between her fingers. “What did I said about lying?”_

_Satoshi doesn’t answer, vision blurring with unshed tears._

_“Go on,” she spits, “what did I say?”_

_“Lying is for naughty boys,” Satoshi recites, feeling sick with every word. “And naughty boys aren’t loved by anybody.”_

_She twists harder. “And? Are you a good boy or a naughty boy?”_

_“Good,” Satoshi answers. “I’m a good boy.”_

_The grip on his ear is released as she pushes him away. Satoshi loses his footing, tumbling backwards to the muddy garden bed he’d been digging in. His aunt makes no attempt to help him, only stares down at him with such contempt in her eyes that Satoshi has to look away._

_“Then act like one. Sometimes I think your poor mother died just to get away from such an awful, ungrateful child,” she says. “It’s no wonder when you cause nothing but trouble.”_

_He has heard this sentiment enough times that it shouldn’t hurt anymore. But where the constant repetition might have helped Satoshi grown numb to her words, they've only hurt more and more each time – more and more as he grows old enough to understand what she means and to wonder if it’s really true._

_Satoshi feels warmth brush over his fingers, the back of his hand. It travels up his arm and rests firmly on his shoulder. He sets his jaw in determination._

_She is turning to leave when he blurts it out, one last attempt to stand up for himself. “But Aiba-chan – ”_

_His aunt turns on her heels so quickly that Satoshi finds himself scuttling away from her on hands and knees through the dirt._

_“I am tired of hearing that name! I will not hear you say it again. Is that understood?”_

_Satoshi nods, eyes downcast. The tears are burning, hot and prickling, at the corner of his eyes, but he’s stubborn enough not to let them fall in front of her._

_It’s only once she’s disappeared back into the house, door slammed shut behind her, that they begin to fall freely, streaking down his face and staining the front of his shirt._

_“Leader, don’t cry.”_

_The hand patting Satoshi’s head is affectionate and a little too forceful._

_“Our next experiment will be much better and she’ll see.”_

_Satoshi give a wet giggle. “Aiba-chan,” he says._

_The boy crouched beside him grins, eyes bright and caring as he continues to roughly pat Satoshi’s head. Satoshi feels warm down to his toes._

_He wipes the tears from his face. He stands up, brushing the dirt from his knees although it does little but rub the stains further into the fabric. He’ll be scolded for it later, but right now it doesn’t matter._

_Aiba-chan is solid and steady beside him, but his mouth is twitching mischievously and there is laughter in his eyes._

_“Hey, Leader. What do you think would happen if we left your aunt’s pants in the freezer over night?”_

~~~

The summer before Satoshi turns four years old, his mother dies. It’s sudden, unexpected, and devastating. By the time the leaves begin to change their color that autumn, his father, grief stricken and unable to cope, sends Satoshi and his older sister to live with an aunt.

That is the beginning of the end.

Satoshi’s Aunt Rinka is not fond of children. The comfort and safety of a mother’s unconditional love is forgotten the moment he is led unwillingly through the door – replaced by coldness, intolerance, and disgust. 

Satoshi is a rambunctious child, a little rough around the edges. He is known for testing boundaries, neglecting to listen, and is already developing a formidable stubborn streak. While his mother had tolerated his willfulness, even found it charming, his aunt does not. In Aunt Rinka’s eyes, children should be neither seen nor heard. Children should, if at all possible, cease to exist.

From the moment Satoshi arrives in her home, Aunt Rinka senses a rebellious nature that must be broken. Over and over she tells him the story of a naughty little boy – a boy who speaks out of turn, who does not listen, who does what he shouldn’t and not what he should. Only good boys – not naughty little boys like that – will be loved.

Naughty little boys like that are left behind by their mothers.

His sister leaves as soon as she sees a chance – escapes when she’s sent off to boarding school, then to university, then a marriage that means she never returns. 

Satoshi never does. Instead, he is left alone with Aunt Rinka, to grow up with nothing bright or happy to hold on to.

Except for Aiba-chan.

**~ 30 YEARS LATER ~**

“Satoshi-kun?”

Ohno Satoshi, thirty-seven years old, looks up just in time to see the elevator doors close shut on a strangely familiar face. 

Ohno has never been one for holding the elevator, but before he realizes it he’s shifted the notably light box he’s holding from one side to another and reached out to press the button. 

The doors in front of him slide back open to reveal a man in a well-made, but slightly unfashionable, business suit with bright eyes and a friendly smile that shows off large, white teeth.

“Thank you,” he says, bowing politely as he steps into the elevator beside Ohno.

He turns and fixes Ohno with a inquisitive stare. “You’re Ohno Satoshi-kun, right?” he asks.

Ohno blinks at him in confusion. “Yes?”

The man’s smile widens considerably. “I’m Sakurai – ” he starts, but even as the words leave his mouth Ohno has remembered. 

Sakurai Sho, now an adult, once lived across the road from Ohno’s Aunt Rinka. Ohno was regularly thrown outdoors by his aunt, who couldn’t seem to stand the look of a grubby little boy amongst her perfectly kept house. Ohno had spent much of his childhood wandering the neighborhood, often crossing over into the Sakurai property. 

Sho had been two years younger than Ohno, friendly and smart, adorably bucktoothed, and in possession of a typhoon of a temper in contrast to his tiny stature. On many occasions, Ohno had delighted in being on the receiving end of that temper.

“Sho-chan. You got big.”

Sho looks flustered by this remark, but quickly recovers himself. “Well, it’s been a long time. I can’t believe I ran into you. Are you working here?”

Ohno looks down at the half-empty box he’s still carrying, then back up at Sho. 

“Not anymore,” is his simple answer. 

The not-so-simple answer is: not since this morning. Not since Ohno had arrived at Samejima Hotels’ corporate headquarters where he’d worked for the last seven miserable years, only to be called straight into his boss’s office and told that he had been terminated. 

Losing his job wasn’t such a disappointment. But the timing could not have been much worse with this month’s rent already dangerously past due and the threat of eviction almost permanently hanging over his head. He’d have to find somewhere else to stay for a while, but his options were currently zero. 

Which meant only one thing. The one thing he had promised himself he would never have to do –

Ohno is interrupted from his quickly darkening thoughts when Sho gently clears his throat before tactfully changing the subject. Even as a child, Sho was always good at things like that. 

“Remember the last time we saw each other?” Sho asks. “It was when you came over to borrow my dad’s electric shaver.”

Ohno frowns. “I did?” he asks uncertainly as he searches for, and does not find, any memory of the incident. 

Sho laughs. “You really don’t remember what you did to the Kazama’s cat?” he asks, clearly surprised by Ohno’s answer. 

Ohno shakes his head. The older he’s gotten the fewer childhood memories he’s been able to hang on to, especially after – after what? After something. As usual, he’s not sure. 

“I didn’t do anything to their cat,” he tells Sho.

“That’s exactly what you said back then,” Sho agrees with amusement. “You said that Aiba-chan did it. No matter what happened, you always said that Aiba-chan did it.”

Ohno heart stops in his chest as the name falls from Sho’s lips.

_Aiba-chan._

“That was right before we moved away,” Sho continues. “You got in so much trouble that I wasn’t allowed to say goodbye before we left. I was so mad – ” 

Ohno is only half listening now as his mind backpedals wildly, the blank spaces of only a moment ago suddenly filling, overflowing, with memories. Memories full of laughter, and friendship, and adventure. 

_Happy memories._

“Aiba-chan,” he whispers in awe, warmth enveloping him from head to toe. “I forgot.”

“The most destructive imaginary friend in history,” Sho says, amiably.

Ohno shakes his head. “He wasn’t always that way. Only when Aunt Rinka – ”

He stops and looks up at Sho a little helplessly. Sho doesn’t need him to fill in the rest. 

“Your aunt was a kind of scary,” he agrees, the look in his eyes sympathetic. “We were all afraid of her back then.”

Ohno nods. “Aiba-chan always stood up for me though,” Ohno says, more to himself than in reply to Sho’s statement.

The elevator comes to a stop then, doors opening with a cheery ding. Sho glances up to check the floor number on the display above them. 

“This is me,” he says, sounding a little disappointed, as if he’d rather stay then go.

He steps out of the elevator, but keeps the doors open with one hand as he fishes into his suit pocket with the other. He produces a business card. 

“It was really good to see you, Satoshi-kun. Maybe we can meet again sometime.”

Ohno shifts his box again to take the offered card. It’s sleek and sophisticated, like it belongs to someone very important – and for a brief moment Ohno wonders what exactly has become of his childhood friend. He hadn’t even thought to ask.

“Bye, Sho-chan.”

“Take care, Satoshi-kun,” Sho replies as he takes his hand away and lets the elevator doors slide shut between them.

Ohno stands in the empty elevator, Sakurai Sho’s business card clutched tightly in his hand, his box of things resting against his hip.

“Aiba-chan,” he says to himself again and, for the first time in a long time, he smiles.

~~~

“Satoshi, you’re late.”

It’s not the worst greeting he’s every received from Aunt Rinka, not by far, but Ohno still can’t help but wince. Just the sound of her voice is enough to make him want to turn and run as far and as fast as he can. Maybe sleeping in the street – his only other option tonight – would have been the better choice. He wonders if it’s too late to turn back. 

Then again, running has almost always made things worse.

His aunt appears before him on the other side of the inner doors leading into the main part of the house. He can’t quite remember the last time he saw her – a few months ago? A year? She looks the same as ever, dressed primly in one of her exquisitely expensive kimonos, her jet black hair with just a streak of grey pinned tightly up and away from her face making her sharp, angled features look even more severe. Her dark eyes are cold and void of any emotion but displeasure as she looks him up and down. 

Ohno had spent most of his life trying to reconcile this woman as his mother’s older sister. He’s grateful not to have found even a trace of his mother in her.

“You’ve missed dinner,” she says to him cuttingly. “After I went to great trouble to prepare it for you. Ungrateful as usual. I don’t know why I expected anything more from you, child.”

“Sorry, Aunt,” he answers, quietly. 

He steps up into the house, eyes downcast, and the sight of his own socked feet on the pristine tatami floor is all it takes for him to be engulfed again with that familiar feeling of being someone who is unwanted, someone who is nothing.

Although his sister had made escape look easy, Ohno had never had her luck. He’d stayed in this house for much longer than he’d every dreamed of, somehow unable to get out from under Aunt Rinka’s unbearable roof despite the fact that she continued to claim she did not want him there, that he was unworthy of her hospitality. 

Once a rambunctious and strong-willed child, with each year she’d worn him down until he was powerless to speak back to her, to stand up to her at all. 

It was not until shortly after his thirtieth birthday that he could finally, mercifully, break free. He found full time employment at Samejima and could afford an apartment of his own on his meager salary. He packed his things as fast as he could and let his mind erase what it wanted as he fled from the house, never to return.

Yet here he was, back again. 

“I’ll go to bed,” he says quietly, ignoring the growling of his empty stomach. 

He starts to shuffle for the exit, to be gone from his aunt’s sight if even for a moment.

Aunt Rinka does not let him off so easily. “Say goodnight to your aunt properly. Or have you forgotten all your manners?”

Ohno flinches under her rebuke, but bows himself low in her direction. “Goodnight, Aunt Rinka.”

Her back is already to him as she replies. “Goodnight, Satoshi.”

~~~

The room that Ohno grew up in – never _his_ room, but rather a room in which he slept, kept his few belongings, hid when he was scared, and was banished to when he misbehaved – is as small as ever. Now there is no hint that he was ever  
there at all. The room is completely empty except for a folded futon and a small chest of drawers.

He hits the light switch and nothing happens. The light bulb must have blown and his aunt had clearly seen no reason to replace it. He sighs, slides the door shut behind him and sits down in the middle of the floor. The small amount of luggage he brought with him from his apartment is still sitting in the hall where he left it, but he has no intention of unpacking it anyway. 

This is temporary, he tells himself. This is just for tonight. Tomorrow he will find another job and, if not that, at least another place to stay.

With a heavy sigh, he lies back on the bare floor. He’s been here for mere minutes and yet it feels like a lifetime already. 

Don’t cry, he tells himself, blinking away the threat of tears.

_Leader, don’t cry._

Aiba-chan. 

Ohno hasn’t been able to stop thinking of him since his encounter with Sho. An imaginary friend who had appeared as Ohno’s side one day when he needed a friend the most and stayed there, getting Ohno into all kinds of trouble, bringing him on all kinds of adventures, for years. Aiba-chan always had a crazy experiment to test, the more havoc inducing the better, and the two of them had spent hours working on them together.

Unlike Ohno, Aiba-chan hadn’t been the least bit afraid of Aunt Rinka. In fact, he’d seemed to take great pleasure in placing her on the receiving end of experiments gone awry. And while that always led to a swift punishment, Ohno can’t imagine having gotten through his childhood without him.

Aiba-chan had been so real, so constant in Ohno’s life. Looking back it was hard to believe he’d been imaginary at all, although certainly no one else could claim to have seen him.

How had Ohno forgotten him?

He rolls over on his side, puzzled but smiling again, his gaze falling to the chest of drawers on the far end of the room. 

With the setting sun as his only light, the room growing dimmer and dimmer each minute, it takes a moment before he notices it. Something is wedged underneath the bottom drawer. It’s small and square and almost indistinguishable from the rest of the chest. Ohno wouldn’t have been able to see it at all except from this angle, but once it’s in his sight he knows exactly what it is. 

A music box. 

He sits up and quickly crawls towards it. It takes a little effort, but with some luck he’s got it out from under the chest just as the room is submerged in the full darkness of night. He sits back, placing it on the floor in front of him as he waits for his eyes to adjust to the lack of light.

The music box is black lacquered with a white crane painted delicately across the top. It had been his mother’s, he remembers vaguely, running his fingers across the worn and chipped paint. It played a song once, although he can’t remember it now. Nor can he remember how or why he was allowed to keep it when his aunt had let him have so little of his mother’s.

He reaches out to open it when he realizes that the lid has been taped shut. The tape is thick and black, wrapped messily to cover the entire seam where the box should open. 

Ohno frowns as he tries to open it anyway, but the tape is old enough to have molded itself to the lacquered wood and it does not yield.

He puts the box aside for now and moves back to the center of the room. In complete darkness, there is nothing else to do but go to bed. He unfolds the futon at first haphazardly, but then more neatly, feeling the weight of his aunt’s rules back upon in this house – naughty boys keep their futons messy, and good boys do not. Even so, he does not bother to change out of his clothes, just lies down fully dressed. 

He falls into a fitful sleep.

~~~ 

_“Leader!”_

_He is a little boy again. He is lying in his futon in the corner of his room in his aunt’s house. It is the middle of the night and he is being shaken forcefully awake._

_He opens his eyes only to be blinded by a beaming smile just inches from his face._

_“Leader,” says Aiba-chan. “WAKE UP!”_

~~~ 

Ohno sits up with a start, his heart rabbiting against his ribs. The room is pitch dark. It must be the middle of the night. He wipes a palm over his face. Despite the chill in the room, his hand comes away damp with sweat.

It’s a few minutes before he realizes what’s woken him. On the floor where he left it, still shut tight, his mother’s music box is gently playing a tune.

_Memories the sky will never, never forget_  
Even if the two of us become separated  
There will never be a season again where  
I'll meet someone I love this much… 

He reaches out for it tentatively, surprised that the tape – which before had seemed so impenetrable – is already falling away in his hands as he lifts the box from the floor.

Slowly and carefully, he lifts the lid and peers inside.

The music grows louder. 

_…Surely, my feelings will gently reach you  
Believing is everything…_

Then it stops all together.

Ohno lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding. The box is empty. He shuts it and places it back on the floor beside him. 

“Strange,” he says to himself as he turns back to his futon – only to let out a yell of surprise when he finds someone else sitting beside him.

“LEADER! HI!”

Ohno falls backwards to the floor with a bang, knocking the music box to the side where it opens again, chirping back to life as it starts the song over.

_What was shining wasn't a mirror or the sun  
Because I realized it was you…_

“Ai-Aiba-chan,” Ohno stutters.

Faulty memory or not, there is no mistaking the person in front of him – the warm eyes and mischievous grin, the light brown hair falling into his face as he leans forward into Ohno’s space with enthusiasm.

Ohno would know him anywhere. 

“Boy, it’s been a long time! Leader, are you older? You look older, but you aren’t really much bigger are you? Hey, am I bigger? Do you still have that measuring stick?? We can use it to check! Ah! If we’re grown-ups now you know what else we can measure – LEADER, WAIT, CAN YOU GROW A BEARD NOW?”

Ohno shakes his head in disbelief, then shakes it again for good measure. Should he pinch himself? Will that make him wake up from what must be – _has to be_ – a dream? 

But before he can do anything, Aiba-chan is on top of him, pinning him down to the floor like an overexcited puppy.

“Leader, I was in that music box for so long! I had to listen to that song over, and over, and over, and over. I even made up a dance to it, do you want to see it? Also why didn’t you let me out?”

“I – ” Ohno starts.

Aiba-chan cuts him off, already moving on to the next subject as he smooshes Ohno into the floor. 

“Hey, Leader, remember that time that we wanted to see if a spider would make a web in someone’s hair? Kazapon cried so hard when he found it! And then the time that we jumped off the roof to see if we could fly, but you broke your leg and had to go to the hospital? Aibirdo did pretty well though – ”

Ohno places a hand firmly over Aiba-chan’s open mouth, effectively silencing him as Ohno tries to collect his racing thoughts. Above him, Aiba-chan wriggles impatiently.

“Aiba-chan,” he says finally, “what are you doing here?”

Aiba-chan tilts his head, giving Ohno a curious look. “H wsd im drh mznik brx,” he mumbles.

Ohno drops his hand.

“I was in the music box,” Aiba-chan repeats. “Remember? Aunt Rinka put me in there so I couldn’t get out and play with you anymore.”

Ohno doesn’t remember. And then – 

_“No more Aiba-chan! He’s gone now, do you understand?” Aunt Rinka had said, wrapping tape around and around the box as Satoshi begged and pleaded with her. “He’s trapped in here and if you ever touch this box again, I will –”_

His anguish must show on his face because Aiba-chan is silent now, studying Ohno more closely. He frowns down at him, eyes suddenly filling with concern.

“Leader, are you okay? You don’t look very well. Did Aunt Rinka do something? Did she make you eat mapo tofu ice cream?”

Ohno shakes his head. “No – I – ” he starts, then feels the words catch in his throat as he looks up at Aiba-chan’s worried expression.

It’s a dream. It can’t be real. But suddenly it doesn’t matter. He surges forward and hugs Aiba-chan as tightly as he can. 

Aiba-chan giggles and reaches up to pat Ohno on the head – that warm, too rough pat that Ohno has missed all these years, that he didn’t even know he was missing until this very moment.

“I’m home!” says Aiba-chan. “Well, I was home all the time though. I was just in that box. But it’s okay, Leader. I’m here now.”

Ohno feels the hot tears running down his face and onto the fabric of Aiba-chan’s soft, bright green sweater. He’s imaginary, Ohno reminds himself, and yet it’s hard to remember that, to care about that, right now. 

“Welcome home,” Ohno sniffles.

“I am home, Leader,” Aiba-chan says again, reassuringly. He pats Ohno’s head again, this time a little more gently, fingers ruffling Ohno’s hair and Ohno’s heart flutters in his chest. 

“And, Leader, I have a great idea for an experiment!”

~~~

When Ohno wakes up, morning light is already streaming in strong and bright through the window. 

He sits up quickly to look around him, then lets out a sigh of disappointment. 

The room is empty. He is alone. 

It was all a dream after all. Of course it was. Aiba-chan was an imaginary friend. He couldn’t come back when he hadn’t ever existed. And as much as he’d like to, Ohno is far too old to be conjuring up non-existent friends.

He sighs again, this time a bit forlornly. He gets up from his futon with little zeal, absently wondering what time it is. If it’s early enough, his aunt might still be asleep and he can avoid her in the kitchen. After skipping dinner last night he can feel his stomach shaking with hunger, but breakfast with his aunt is guaranteed to kill any appetite he might have. 

He’s already at the bedroom door, sliding it open with as little noise as possible, when he puts his socked foot down on something solid and sharp.

“Ouch!”

He looks down. Beneath his sore foot is his mother’s music box, wide open and lying on its side.

Ohno blinks in surprise.

The music box had been closed tight when he went to bed. It was only in his dream that it had opened itself. Right before Aiba-chan had –

A piercing scream shatters Ohno’s train of thought. From somewhere inside the house, he hears his aunt’s shrill voice.

_”Satoshi, what have you done?”_

~~~

The kitchen is almost unrecognizable underneath all the destruction. Ohno stands in the doorway, frozen in place as he struggles to take it all in. 

The table is completely overturned; pots and pans are strewn across the floor. There are several shattered bowls in a trail from the cupboard to the stovetop where every burner is on its highest setting. The faucet over the sink is running on full blast and the sink long since overflowing onto the floor. The door to the freezer is swinging wide open and inside, inexplicably, are a collection of several pairs of reading glasses, their lenses smashed out where they sit in a shallow, half frozen puddle of dark liquid.

In the middle of it all, Aunt Rinka is standing in her white silk housecoat, rending her perfectly set hair. 

“What have you _done_?” she screeches again. 

There’s a breathy giggle and Ohno’s knees nearly give out in surprise when he turns to see Aiba-chan standing beside him with a white lab coat over his usual green sweater and overalls. There is a giant magnifying glass dangling around his neck and a triumphant look on his face.

“Experiment Conclusion: If you put soup into empty eye glasses and freeze them, they do not become real glasses!” Aiba-chan announces proudly, grinning so wide the corners of his eyes crinkle.

Ohno can barely hear him over Aunt Rinka’s continued screaming. “Satoshi, you are as out of control as ever! Just the same as you were when you were a child! I open my home to you and this is the thanks I get in return.”

“We didn’t make _that_ big a mess!” Aiba-chan says, smile not dimming despite Aunt Rinka’s obvious displeasure. “Remember one time when we blew the door off the oven? Tell her we didn’t do that this time. Aunt Rinka, we didn’t do that this time!” he calls in her direction, though she clearly cannot see or hear him. 

“S-sorry, Aunt Rinka,” Ohno manages to stutter out. He reaches for the closest pot.

Aiba-chan is perched on the edge of the upturned table now, shaking his head. “I don’t feel that sorry though, Leader. Tell her it was an important experiment. We _needed_ to do it! FOR SCIENCE!”

“Aiba-chan – ” Ohno hisses.

Aunt Rinka turns her rage-filled expression squarely on Ohno now. Her face is bright red with anger and Ohno can feel himself cowering even before she speaks.

“What did you just say?” she asks, voice shaking dangerously.

“Aiba-chan,” Ohno repeats, meekly.

“I thought I told you never to say that name again,” she snaps, ripping the pot forcefully from Ohno’s hand. “Get out. Get out _now_. Go and look for a job! And don’t come back until you have one, you awful child.”

“Leader, watch out!” Aiba-chan yells in warning and Ohno ducks just in time as a pot comes crashing into the wall beside his head as he darts for the door. 

~~~

“Wow, Leader, that was a close one!” Aiba-chan says as Ohno stumbles out of the house, shoes only half on. “Aunt Rinka really doesn’t like science, does she?”

Ohno stops at the front gate to finish pulling on his sneakers. Aiba-chan is already looking around the yard curiously and Ohno watches him with a mix of joy and trepidation. 

It hadn’t been a dream. Aiba-chan is back. Real or not, he’s standing before him…and holding a very large tree branch.

“Aiba-chan,” Ohno calls out while Aiba-chan swings the branch over his head a few times as if testing it – for what Ohno can only guess. “Why are you here?”

“Huh?” Aiba-chan drops the tree branch and Ohno can’t help but feel a bit relieved to see it go after this morning’s incident. “I told you, Leader. I was trapped in the music box. And now I’m out!”

“But – why? How? After all this time?” Ohno says, still puzzled. _Can an imaginary friend be trapped anywhere?_ he wonders but does not say aloud.

“You needed me, didn’t you?” Aiba-chan answers, back beside him now and this time holding a rhinoceros beetle in his cupped palms. Ohno hadn’t even seen him pick it up. 

“Yes, but – “ 

_You’re imaginary,_ he wants to say – but looking at Aiba-chan’s cheerful face as he studies the beetle in his hands, Ohno can’t get the words out. 

Instead he opens the gate and steps out onto the street, only a little startled that Aiba-chan, right behind him just a moment ago, is already on the other side waiting for him. 

“So where are we going?” he asks, hands stuck into the pockets of his overalls as he follows Ohno down the street.

“I need to find a job,” Ohno says. “Otherwise I’ll be stuck at Aunt Rinka’s for good.”

Aiba-chan bounces from one side of Ohno to another, nearly tripping him with every step. “I can help you, Leader! Let’s find you a job!” 

“I’m not sure how you can help – ” Ohno starts to mumble, but he’s cut off when Aiba-chan lets out a yelp of pure excitement.

“LEADER LOOK! LOOK OVER THERE. IS THAT KAZAPON?”

Ohno turns in the direction that Aiba-chan is pointing. Across the street, through the open gate of the house there, a man is washing his car with a hose and bucket of water.

A man that looks almost exactly like the youngest Kazama boy, Shunsuke.

Kazapon.

“It is, it is!” Aiba-chan exclaims, tugging on Ohno’s sleeve so forcefully he almost topples him over. “Wow he got so big – way bigger than you, Leader! Do you think we could still fit him in the mailbox? Let’s try! Please, Leader, please!”

The man looks up then and sees Ohno staring at him from across the street. He looks bewildered for a moment, then he smiles. 

“Oh. Hi, Satoshi-kun,” he calls out.

Ohno raises a hand in greeting. “Kazapon.”

He’s about to keep walking when Aiba-chan starts to push him bodily in Kazama’s direct. Ohno tries to dig his heels in, to resist, but Aiba-chan had always been bigger and stronger than him when he was still a kid and it’s no different now. If it looks strange to Kazama, to see someone both coming closer and trying to hold himself back, he doesn’t say anything. 

Instead he waits patiently until Ohno finally comes to a stop before him, Aiba-chan beaming behind him. 

“No one calls me Kazapon anymore,” he tells Ohno.

“Ask him if we can put him in the mailbox!” Aiba-chan insists. He makes a move to get closer to Kazama, but Ohno puts out an arm to stop him.

Kazama looks at Ohno’s outstretched arm and the empty space behind it curiously. “How have you been, Satoshi-kun?” he asks, politely.

“Fine,” Ohno answers through gritted teeth as Aiba-chan struggles against him, trying to break past.

Kazama nods, looking more wary by the minute. “Didn’t expect to see you around here again – you know, once you got away.”

“Just visiting,” Ohno says as he turns to use both arms now to keep Aiba-chan at bay, sweat breaking out on his forehead from the effort.

“Come on, it’ll only take a minute!” Aiba-chan begs, still struggling while Ohno holds him back by pure willpower alone.

“No!” Ohno says firmly.

“What?” asks Kazama in confusion. He’s looking past Ohno again, brow furrowed, and for a moment Ohno wonders if he can actually see Aiba-chan.

“You’re no fun, Leader!” Aiba-chan complains and with a pout he disappears into thin air. 

Ohno breathes a sigh of relief, straightening himself up. 

“Well, it was good to see you, Kaza – ah, Shunsuke-kun,” he corrects himself.

“Yeah, you too,” Kazama replies, tone noticeably more nervous than before.

He gives an uneasy smile, and it’s exactly then that a jet blast of water hits him full force, knocking him off his feet completely and drenching him head to toe.

From the nearby water spigot, disconnected hose in hand, Aiba-chan is nearly doubled over with maniacal laughter. 

“Kazapon!” he cackles with glee. “Kazapon, you’re so crazy!”

Ohno sprints over as fast as he can to knock Aiba-chan out of the way and turn off the water before rushing back to help a sopping wet Kazama.

“Are you okay?” he asks in horror as Kazama sputters and chokes, looking up at him with not misplaced suspicion.

Ohno is still struggling to help him to his feet when he finally recovers enough to speak again. He grabs a fistful of Ohno’s shirt and pulls him close. 

“Satoshi-kun,” he says seriously, eyes filled with terror. “Is Aiba-chan back?”

Aiba-chan is still laughing and now Kazama turns towards him as if he can hear it. Ohno’s heart beats furiously in his chest, unsure which would be worse – if Kazama knows Aiba-chan is there or not.

But if Kazama can see him, if he can hear him, he says nothing. He looks back to Ohno with an unreadable expression across his soaking wet face.

“Here let me help you,” Ohno says, hurriedly avoiding the question.

He reaches into his pocket for a hand towel and as he pulls it out, something flutters to the ground at his feet. He hands the towel to Kazama – although it will clearly be of little use – then bends to pick up what’s fallen. 

On the ground is Sakurai Sho’s business card.

Ohno stares at it, noticing once again its stylish calligraphy and heavily embossed finish – like it belongs to someone very important.

_“Maybe we can meet again sometime,”_ Sho had said.

Ohno looks back up to find Kazama miserably rubbing his face dry with the already uselessly wet towel.

“Kazapon,” he says, “can you give me a ride somewhere?”

~~~

“Where are we going anyway?” Aiba-chan complains, kicking the back of Ohno’s seat repeatedly as they crawl slowly through city traffic in Kazama’s newly washed car. 

“We’re going to see Sho-chan,” Ohno says, staring straight ahead through the windshield at another red light and belatedly wondering if Sho will mind that he’s showing up unannounced to beg for a job. 

Kazama, now in mostly dry clothes, gives Ohno a side-eyed look before glancing into the rear view mirror to the empty back of the car. 

“Uh huh. I hear he’s a big shot executive now,” he interjects to the conversation.

“No way!” says Aiba-chan in disbelief, leaning forward in between the front seats. “ _Sho-chan?_ Is he grown up too? Did he grow into his teeth or what?” 

Ohno lets out a burst of laughter and to his credit Kazama barely reacts, seemingly having accepted the situation he’s found himself in. 

But as they pull up in front of their destination, Ohno’s laughter dies abruptly. 

The building before them is twice the size of Ohno’s former office, and three times more intimidating. Even as Ohno cranes his neck to look up at it from the car window, he can barely see the top floor.

“Thanks, Kazapon,” he says, trying to keep the sudden nervousness from his voice while he reaches for his seatbelt and unbuckles it. Behind him, Aiba-chan is already making noises of menacing inquisitiveness.

“I can wait if you need a ride back,” Kazama offers. “I’ll just go park the car and – “

Ohno shakes his head. “It’s okay. Thanks.”

Kazama gives a nod of understanding. “Bye, Satoshi-kun. Good luck.” 

Then he turns around to face the backseat. “Bye, Aiba-chan.”

~~~

“Aiba-chan, you should wait here. And don’t do anything – ” Ohno starts as they step into the building’s white and grey marble lobby. 

He looks up from where he’s been studying Sho’s business card to find Aiba-chan already gone.

“Leader, look!”

Ohno spins around to find Aiba-chan excitedly circling a large decorative boulder, part of an elaborate display recreating a _kare-sansui_ in modern art. 

“I’ve always wanted to lift a rock as big as this one!” Aiba-chan cries happily. 

He throws his arms around the bolder only to immediately topple over, knocking into an unsuspecting women passing by him and sending the large stack of papers she’s carrying flying off in every direction.

“Aiba-chan!” Ohno hisses. 

The woman looks around her, clearly mystified by how the papers have flown from her hands by themselves. Aiba-chan shrugs, grinning sheepishly.

“Satoshi-kun?” 

From the other side of the lobby, Sakurai Sho has appeared and is headed in Ohno’s direction. Following behind him is another man that Ohno doesn’t recognized, dressed causally in a dark suede jacket and jeans, his face hidden behind a round pair of sunglasses and large floppy black hat.

Sho stops in front of Ohno, the other man a step behind. “What are you doing here?” 

“Hi, Sho-chan,” Ohno says, although he suddenly feels a little foolish, standing in the lobby of this fancy building in his sneakers and the clothes he’s slept it, looking for a favor from someone he hasn’t seen in 30 years. “I came to see you.”

The smile Sho gives him in reply is one of genuine pleasure and Ohno can’t help but feel a little better despite himself.

“Great!” Sho says, and seems to mean it. “I was just walking Matsumoto-kun to the door, but then we can go up to my office. Satoshi-kun, this is Matsumoto-kun. He owns a bakery in Ebisu. Matsumoto-kun, this is Satoshi-kun. We grew up together.”

The man in the hat bows his head just a little. “Nice to meet you. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“You have?” Ohno says, surprised. 

Matsumoto looks unexpectedly agitated by this remark, flustered even, and a glance is Sho’s direction finds his face turning unusually red. 

But before Ohno can think too much about their strange reactions, the floor gives a shake beneath his sneakered feet and a loud crash echoes across the lobby – one that sounds suspiciously like a boulder smashing into marble. 

“Leader! I did it!” Aiba-chan whoops victoriously.

~~~

“So what brings you here, Satoshi-kun?”

Sho’s office does not disappoint the expectations set by his business card. Here on the 40th floor, in a room twice the size of Ohno’s last apartment with a wall of ceiling high windows that look out on the city below, there is no question that Ohno’s childhood friend is the big shot executive Kazama had described. 

“Wow!” says Aiba-chan, nose pressed against the glass of the nearest windowpane. “I can see the zoo from here, Leader!” 

Ohno snorts, the cup of tea that Sho’s secretary has so carefully poured for him nearly knocked out of his hands.

“Are you okay?” Sho asks in concern as Ohno wipes tea from his face.

“I’m fine,” Ohno reassures him. 

He clears his throat, steeling himself for the conversation he’s come all the way here to have with the important man in front of him. 

“I lost my job and I’ve had to move back in with my aunt.”

Sho’s expression of concern darkens. He leans forward in his seat. “You have?” he asks in a low tone.

“I can see all the animals!” Aiba-chan shouts from his post at the window. “Leader, there’s the giraffe!” 

Ohno isn’t listening this time. He takes a deep breath. “I was hoping – ” 

He trails off again, confidence steadily draining the longer he sits in this imposing office. What had seemed like such a good idea this morning standing there in Kazama’s driveway, now seems ridiculous. Sho won’t have a job for someone like him. He’ll be turned away to crawl back to his aunt’s once again, and Aunt Rinka will laugh at the very thought that someone like Ohno could ask for a favor from a man like Sakurai Sho.

Ohno can’t stop himself from picturing Aunt Rinka’s fury-filled face where she’d stood in the middle of her demolished kitchen this morning.

He can’t go back.

“I was hoping you might be able to help me find a new job.”

The words come out in a rushed tumble and it seems to take Sho a moment to process them into something he can understand. When Sho’s teacup comes down on the table with a clang, Ohno winces instinctively. 

“Leader, are you okay?” he hears Aiba-chan call out, unglued from the window and instantly appearing at Ohno’s side.

Ohno is already on his feet and ready to flee when Sho reaches out a hand to stop him. Sho is smiling and Ohno doesn’t understand it, not until his heart stops pounding so loudly in his ears that he can finally hear his reply.

“Of course! Of course I can help you,” Sho is saying. “We don’t have any openings here at the moment I’m afraid, but I know just the place for you! I’ll get your contact information to them this afternoon.”

Ohno blinks at Sho in awe. “Really?” 

“Really,” says Sho, grinning widely now. With a reassuring squeeze, he lets hand drop from Ohno’s arm. “And more than that, you should come stay with me until you find a new apartment. There’s plenty of room and I’d love to have you.”

“Leader, can we have a sleepover at Sho-chan’s house?” Aiba-chan asks, bouncing on his toes a little by Ohno’s shoulder. 

“Okay,” says Ohno. 

“Good,” Sho replies as Aiba-chan pumps his fist in the air in victory. 

“This is going to be so much fun, Leader! We can wear pajamas and play ‘Magical Banana’ and have a pillow fight! Remember that time I hypnotized you, Leader?”

“There is one more thing.” Sho starts, then pauses, his smile wavering. He seems almost uncomfortable as he continues. “I have a roommate. Matsumoto-kun. You met him downstairs.”

“Matsumoto-kun?” Ohno repeats, remembering the agitated man with the hat and the way Sho’s face had turned red – the same red that it is turning now as he speaks.

“Well – more than a roommate,” says Sho, meaningfully. 

“His _boyfriend_!” Aiba-chan giggles, smacking Ohno on the shoulder before he disappears.

“Ouch!” says Ohno.

“Huh?” says Sho.

“Nothing,” Ohno says, shaking his head. “I don’t mind, Sho-chan.”

Sho looks relieved by this, smile back in place as he picks up his teacup again. “Then it’s settled.”

“Leader! Do you think that a lion would play with a feather like a cat?” calls Aiba-chan, back at the window now that all the excitement is over. 

Ohno sighs. “Sho-chan. Can Aiba-chan come too?”

This time Sho is the one with tea on his face as he chokes in surprise. “Aiba-chan?”

~~~

“I’m home,” Sho calls out, toeing off his expensive business shoes and placing them neatly in line besides the other shoes in the large genkan. 

“Welcome home,” a voice calls from inside the apartment 

“I’m intruding!” Aiba-chan sing-songs, tossing his mud covered high tops in a messy pile as Ohno carefully takes off his own shoes beside him.

Matsumoto appears in the doorway, looking less intimidating than before in a pair of thick tortoise-shell rimmed glasses and a neat, fashionable apron.

“Welcome Ohno-san,” he says. “Sho told me you’ll be staying with us.”

Ohno bows low and Aiba-chan giggles beside him. “Thank you for having us.”

Matsumoto raises a thick, well-kempt eyebrow above his glasses frames. “Us?”

Sho cuts in. “Aiba-chan is here too, right Satoshi-kun?” He holds his arms out to gesture at the empty space next to him.

“I’m over here, Sho-chan,” Aiba-chan huffs, already inside the house and watching with amusement from over Matsumoto’s shoulder. 

“Aiba-chan?” Matsumoto asks, brow furrowing. “You mean the imaginary – ”

He trails off as Sho nods vigorously.

Matsumoto looks like he wants to roll his eyes, but somehow finds the power to control himself as Sho gives him a pleading look. 

“Ok,” he says, adding graciously, “Welcome, Aiba-chan then.”

He moves aside so that Ohno and Sho can come into the house and it's just as Ohno steps behind him, Matsumoto still turned towards the genkan and bending over to straighten Sho’s perfectly straight shoes, that it happens.

The unthinkable.

“Thanks for having me!” Aiba-chan chirps, although Matsumoto can’t hear him. 

Then he promptly clasps his hands together, index fingers fully extended, and sticks them into the seat of Matsumoto’s pants. 

~~~

“Are you sure you’re okay, Jun?” Sho asks for the thousandth time in ten minutes. 

“I said I’m fine,” Matsumoto replies with a grimace. “I was just surprised.”

Which is an understatement, Ohno thinks but does not point out. Matsumoto had yelled so loud that most of downtown Tokyo must be convinced that something – besides Matsumoto’s pride – had been gravely injured. 

“I’m really sorry, Matsumoto-san,” Ohno says, not unaware that to Matsumoto the only possible perpetrator of this crime is Ohno himself. “Aiba-chan thought it would be funny, but he promises not to do it again.”

“Thank you,” says Matsumoto through clenched teeth. “I appreciate the promise.”

“Good thinking, Leader!” Aiba-chan says brightly from where he’s sitting cross-legged in the middle of the large dining room table. “If he thinks I promised not to do it again, then next time he’ll be even more surprised! I can’t wait!”

Ohno hides his face in his hands.

“If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go and finish dinner,” Matsumoto says, curtly. 

He stands and glances towards the kitchen door, then back in Ohno’s direction – before scooting, with as much dignity as possible, out of the room without turning his back. 

~~~ 

“Leader! Wake up!”

Ohno’s eyes flutter open to find Aiba-chan hovering above him again, his eyes sparkling even in the dim light of the Sho’s living room. 

“I thought of an experiment!” Aiba-chan stage whispers as Ohno tries to blink himself into consciousness. “I have liquid nitrogen!”

Suddenly, Ohno is wide-awake. He sits up with a start, knocking Aiba-chan off of him. “Where did you get that?” 

Aiba-chan doesn’t answer. Instead, he grabs Ohno by the wrist and tugs him to his feet. 

“Come on, Leader!” he says ad he drags Ohno towards the kitchen.

“Aiba-chan, we can’t – ” Ohno starts to say. 

Then he sees the liquid nitrogen, white smoke rising gently from where it’s sitting in a vat on the kitchen table. “Eh?”

Fascinated, he takes a step closer to it with his hand out. Aiba-chan quickly smacks it away.

“You can’t touch liquid nitrogen, Leader!” he scolds, laughing at Ohno’s startled expression.

It takes a moment, but then Ohno is laughing too – laughter that grows steadily stronger until he’s nearly bent over from the force of it, tears springing to his eyes.

Aiba-chan, delighted and encourage by this reaction, begins to throw open the kitchen cabinets and pull out all sorts of items to test in their experiment. 

“This looks expensive!” he says, manhandling a crystal vase that has been carefully stored on the highest shelf. “Do you think it will shatter in a million pieces if we put it in?”

Ohno straightens up, wiping the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. “Let’s try it,” he says.

Aiba-chan beams.

The crystal vase does shatter into a million pieces. So do several expensive looking plates. The instant ramen solidifies into one giant chunk, and the half-dozen eggs freeze like they have been hardboiled. Each conclusion is met with unbridled happiness by the two experimenters. 

They’ve just poured the entire contents of a carton of milk in, both of them leaning in close with excitement to watch the results, when Aiba-chan pauses.

“Leader, it’s good to see you smile,” he says softly. “When I first met you, you never smiled at all.”

Ohno nods. “I remember.”

It’s the truth. He remembers it all now – how his life changed for the better when Aiba-chan arrived. And tonight, it’s that same feeling. It’s that feeling he’s always had when Aiba-chan is by his side, though he’s not sure what to call it.

He turns his head and Aiba-chan is right beside him, so close their noses almost bump. For a moment, Ohno’s heart leaps to his throat.

“Thank you for coming back, Aiba-chan,” he says.

Aiba-chan smiles. “I like being with you, Leader.”

_Beep, beep, beep!_

Above them, the piercing sound of the smoke alarm begins to blare, the smoke from the liquid nitrogen shooting up into the air to meet it.

“Oops!” says Aiba-chan, grinning broadly, and that’s all he has time to say before the sprinklers go off, raining down on them from above.

From somewhere inside the apartment there is a yell of distress that sounds very much like Matsumoto.

“My _hats_!”

~~~

“You’re lucky Sakurai-san convinced the landlord not to press charges,” Aunt Rinka declares as she pushes Ohno roughly into the elevator.

“Yes, Aunt Rinka. I’m sorry,” Ohno mumbles as he hits the back wall from the force of her shove.

“Wait for me!” Aiba-chan shouts, jogging towards the elevator doors just as Aunt Rinka presses the button to slam them shut in front of him.

“I’m not the one that you should be apologizing to,” Aunt Rinka rebukes.

Aiba-chan appears at Ohno’s side, panting, sweat dripping down his face. “Leader, tell her it was me. I don’t mind!”

“I didn’t do anything – ” Ohno tries. “It was Aiba–”

Aunt Rinka turns on him with such a fire in her eyes that it has Ohno pressing himself further into the wall, wishing for it to swallow him up.

“You are far too old to be blaming your behavior on an imaginary friend!” she snarls, hair falling into her face as she nearly shakes with anger.

The elevator door dings as they reach their floor and Aunt Rinka reaches up to readjust her hair, pushing the loose strands back into place.

“We are finishing this once and for all. I should have done this a long time ago,” she says calmly as she steps out and heads for the door labeled:

_Dr. Johnny Kitagawa: Child Psychiatrist  
Award-Winning Specialist in Imaginary Friend Syndrome _

~~~

To say that Ohno is the oldest patient in Dr. Johnny Kitagawa’s waiting room is an understatement. Sitting with his aunt, Ohno cannot ignore the many small children, all certainly under the age of 12, scattered across the room with their parents. 

What he also can’t ignore are the many strangely dressed companions to these children who can only be their imaginary friends.

“Yo, Aiba-chan!” someone calls out.

“Nino!” Aiba-chan says with delight as he goes barreling across the room to crush a small man to the floor. 

“GET OFF!” the man yelps.

Aiba-chan only half complies, releasing most of his captive from his grasp. 

“What are you doing here?!” Aiba-chan asks. 

Nino gestures with a thumb to a little boy sitting beside of them, head bent so far forward over a handheld game that he looks as if he will topple over completely.

“I’m with this one,” Nino says as the little boy’s fingers move vigorously over the buttons of his game consol. “His mom is worried because he doesn’t do anything but play games all day with his imaginary friend. He only agreed to come because he wants to ask the doctor if there’s a way he can beat my high scores.” Nino smirks. “There’s not,” he adds, smugly. “What about you, Aiba-chan?”

Aiba-chan points to where Ohno is sitting, bewildered, as he watches their exchange. 

Nino raises a skeptical eyebrow. “Isn’t your kid an old man?”

“Oi!” says Aiba-chan, defensively. “Just because he’s older than yours doesn’t mean you need to be rude.”

Nino shrugs. “Well, he is kinda cute,” he decides.

“Hey!” yells a booming voice as a large man in a leather jacket approaches. “Aiba-chan! Nino!”

Behind him, a tiny girl in pigtails and a pink jumper tugs hard on the sleeve of his leather jacket. “Tomo-chan, shh!” she scolds him sternly.

The man gives her a bashful look. “Sorry, Miki-san,” he apologizes even as she turns and marches back to her seat beside her mother.

“Nagase, hi!” says Aiba-chan with a wave. “Are you here to see the doctor too?”

Nagase reaches up to rub thoughtfully at his impressive stubble. “Yeah. Miki-san thought we should see if the doctor can do anything about my manners.”

“Is that what the doctor here does?” Aiba-chan asks, curiously. “That’s not so bad!”

Nino and Nagase give each other a meaningful look. Nino turns back to Aiba-chan, shaking his head, as the door to the waiting room opens again and a mother and young girl enter followed by three women in matching gold outfits happily chatting amongst themselves.

“You don’t know what the doctor here does?” Nino asks Aiba-chan with an expression that seems close to worry.

“Nino, don’t scare him!” one of the women in gold says as they approach the group. 

“A~chan, he should know the truth,” Nino says to her. “We don’t all make it out of here.”

A~chan shakes her head and puts her hands on her hips, her gold skirt bouncing to emphasize her words. “Kashiyuka, Nocchi and I come here all the time with Chiho-chan and we’re fine!”

“We are!” says another of the women, this one wearing a pair of gold shorts.

“That’s right!” says the third, pushing her long hair out of the way as she speaks.

“Ohno Satoshi-san?” the nurse calls out. “You may see the doctor now.”

“That’s me!” Aiba-chan says excitedly. “See you guys later!”

He starts to walk away when Nino grabs the front of his sweater. 

“Aiba-chan, don’t let him take the pills. The green ones.”

Aiba-chan blinks at him in confusion. “Huh?”

The look Nino gives him is one of complete seriousness. “Remember Kanjani8?”

Aiba-chan nods. 

“Every wonder why there’re only 7 of them? Their kid took the green pills.”

Aiba-chan shakes his head in disbelief, then laughs. “No way! You’re just trying to trick me like you always do. Very funny!”

He pulls away from Nino’s grip and straightens out the front of his sweater underneath his overalls. 

“Besides, Leader wouldn’t take something that would hurt me.” He puts up a hand to wave. “Bye everyone! See you another time!”

“Bye, Aiba-chan!” the group answers.

“Be careful!” Nino calls out as Aiba-chan disappears and the doctor’s office door snaps shut behind Ohno and his aunt.

~~~

“Take it,” Aunt Rinka says, holding the small green pill out in the palm of her hand. 

Ohno looks down at it with uncertainty. From over his shoulder, Aiba-chan peeks down at it too. 

“Hey, that’s the pill Nino told me about, Leader,” Aiba-chan says. “I wonder what it does?”

“Take it!” Aunt Rinka nearly screeches and this time Ohno picks up the pill and puts it in his mouth.

“Swallow,” Aunt Rinka commands. 

“Leader – ” Aiba-chan starts again, then stops as Ohno swallows.

“Good boy,” says Aunt Rinka with a smile.

~~~

“Take it.”

Ohno swallows.

~~~

“Swallow.”

Ohno swallows.

~~~

“Good boy.”

Ohno swallows.

~~~

“Leader, I don’t feel so good,” Aiba-chan says weakly from where he’s lying splayed across Ohno’s bedroom floor.

Ohno hears him, but for some reason his voice sounds very far away. He pulls the covers closer around him in his futon, wondering what day it is, what time it is – what exactly is happening to him. 

But almost as soon as he starts to wonder, these thoughts slip away from him, melting into a comfortable blankness. It’s warm and quiet here and he’s perfectly happy. He’s not a naughty boy anymore. He does what Aunt Rinka says.

He’s a good boy.

~~~

“Satoshi, you have a visitor,” his aunt’s voice says, waking Ohno from a daze. 

He blinks a few times, unsure of where he is. Then the door to the room slides open and Kazama enters.

“Kazapon,” Ohno says cheerily as Kazama takes a seat beside his futon.

“Hi, Satoshi-kun. I heard you weren’t feeling well. My mom made you some soup.”

“Thanks,” says Ohno. He can’t quite get his eyes to focus on Kazama’s face and he frowns, squinting as he tries to make Kazama’s nose and eyes and mouth stop floating around the room.

“Are you all right?” Kazama asks, voice oddly concerned. 

“I’m taking my pills,” Ohno tells him happily. “I’m a good boy.”

There’s a feeble sounding cough from somewhere nearby and Ohno wonders what it could be. Maybe Kazama has a cold.

Kazama’s head turns towards to opposite side of the room. “Where’s Aiba-chan?” he asks. 

“Aiba-chan?” Ohno repeats, the name feeling strange on his tongue. 

Kazama turns back to Ohno and his face is drained of all its color. “What’s wrong with Aiba-chan? Isn’t he sick?”

“Who’s Aiba-chan?” Ohno asks unsurely.

Kazama grabs Ohno by the shoulders. “Satoshi-kun, look at me. What pills are you taking? Why are you taking them?”

“I’m a good boy,” Ohno says, brow furrowing in confusion as he wonders why Kazama is so upset, why he’s asking so many questions. Ohno is happy and warm and a good boy. 

When that answer doesn’t seem to satisfy Kazama, he tries again.

“Good boys don’t have imaginary friends. Imaginary friends are lies. And lying is for naughty boys,” he recites, and as he says the words feels a sudden, unexpected wave of nausea. “Naughty boys aren’t loved by anyone.”

“Satoshi-kun,” Kazama says, shaking him a little and Ohno feels as if he’s going to vomit. “Aiba-chan isn’t imaginary. He’s real.”

From somewhere far away, Ohno hears a familiar breathy laugh and then a fit of forceful coughing. 

Kazama opens his mouth to say something more, but before he can the bedroom door slides open again.

“That’s enough visiting for now, Shunsuke,” Aunt Rinka says, with just an edge of dangerous irritation to her voice. 

Kazama lets go of Ohno. “Satoshi-kun, think about what I said.”

He stands up and is halfway to the door when he trips on nothing at all and falls to the floor with a thud. The faint sound of giggling trickles across the room, followed by more coughing.

“Shunsuke, come along. This is no time for fooling around when Satoshi needs his rest,” Aunt Rinka says disapprovingly as Kazama scrambles to his feet and out of the room.

“Satoshi,” she says then. “Time for your pill.”

~~~

“Leader.”

_Memories of a dream that I'll always, always chase after_  
Even if the two of us go somewhere far away  
No matter what kind of painful nights… 

Ohno opens his eyes, trying to blink away the blurriness of his vision. The room is dark now. It must be the middle of the night. He can hear his mother’s music box playing.

“Leader,” someone is whispering.

“Aiba-chan?” Ohno asks the dark room.

“Leader, it’s okay if you don’t believe in me anymore.”

There’s a cough, then another. The voice is getting slowly closer, but Ohno still can’t make his eyes focus in the dark room. 

_…Surely, my wish will gently reach you  
There aren't any nights that won't open to morning…_

“I don’t mind,” the voice says, and it's right beside him now. 

“Aiba-chan,” Ohno says.

More coughing. Ohno blinks his eyes desperately again, trying to break through the fog.

“But before I go – ”

“Don’t go!” Ohno pleads. 

“ – I want to tell you one thing.”

_…The love that wasn't conveyed  
Will become flowers that fall on the city…_

Suddenly, Ohno’s vision snaps into focus. Aiba-chan is above him. His face is pale and drawn, but there is still light in his eyes, even here in the dark. He tries to smile, then winces with pain.

_…No matter where I go  
I'll feel you here…_

“Leader, remember the first time we played together?”

There are tears rolling down Ohno’s face now – he can feel them hot and wet against his cheeks. He nods. 

“I remember,” Ohno says. “You taught me how to make Aiba Tea and we killed all the gladiolas in Aunt Rinka’s garden when we watered them with it.” 

Aiba-chan gives a painful laugh, then starts to cough again. 

“She was so mad. I thought she’d kill me,” Ohno whispers as the tears continue to fall. “But you saved me.”

He reaches up and touches his hand to Aiba-chan’s cheek. It feels solid and real beneath his fingers. “You always saved me.”

He chokes back a sob. 

“And then Aunt Rinka took you away from me. And all the life and spirit went out of me.” 

_…Memories the sky will never, never forget  
Even if the two of us become separated …_

“Don’t cry, Leader,” Aiba-chan says, although his eyes are wet now too. He takes a shallow, shaky breath. “Leader, before I go I want you to know – ”

_…Surely, my feelings will gently reach you…_

“ – that you _are_ loved. I love you. I will always love you, no matter what.”

As the words leave Aiba-chan’s lips, Ohno feels it again – that same feeling that he’s always had when Aiba-chan is by his side.

He knows what it is now. It’s the feeling of being loved.

_…Believing is everything  
There aren't any nights that won't open to morning… _

Ohno surges forward, fingers steady against Aiba-chan’s cheek as he presses their lips together, as he kisses him – just for a moment, just for this moment. 

_…Believing is everything…_

He pulls away, warmth enveloping him from head to toe. “Aiba-chan,” he starts to say. “I love y – ”

The room is flooded with a dazzling light and Ohno recoils from it, blinded. By the time his eyes adjust, Aiba-chan is no longer in front of him.

“Satoshi,” his aunt calls. “It’s time to take your pill.”

Ohno stares at her. Then slowly he shakes his head. 

“No,” he says, voice echoing loudly in his ears, heart pounding in his chest.

Aunt Rinka enters the room, stops before him. “What did you just say?” she snaps.

“No!” Ohno repeats, more forcefully this time. “I won’t take it.”

Aunt Rinka’s mouth twists with anger. “Naughty boy!”

The deafening crack of splintering wood fills the room as Aunt Rinka picks up the music box and throws it, shattering it against the wall beside Ohno’s head. 

Ohno looks down at the broken pieces of his mother’s music box on the floor beside him. There’s blood on his face where the shards of its destruction have hit him.

A few last desperate notes of music chime out before it falls into silence.

_…so swee…_

Ohno feels a wave of fury bursting from within him, feels it radiate off him in every direction for the first time in his life. He picks up the remains of the music box and turns back to his aunt.

“You lied!” he yells at her accusingly.

Aunt Rinka takes a step back in shock. “What are you saying, you ungrateful child?”

“You said no one loves me,” Ohno repeats. He scrambles up from his futon, music box in hand, and pulls himself to his full height. “It’s not true. It’s never been true. Aiba-chan loves me.”

Aunt Rinka’s eyes are wild now. “Don’t say that name – ” she says, reaching out for him.

He pushes her hand away, pushes past her, the force of it knocking her to the floor.

“Satoshi!” she cries as he steps over without a second glance. “Satoshi! Come back here right now!”

He steps out of the room into the bright hallway. “Goodbye, Aunt Rinka,” he says. “You can’t hurt me anymore.”

~~~

“Leader!”

Ohno is already on the street outside when Aiba-chan reappears beside him, already looking better, brighter, than he has in days.

“Leader you did it! You did it!” he shouts.

Without warning, he grabs Ohno into a crushing hug and squeezes him so tight that Ohno can’t breath.

“I did it,” Ohno says, shaking from head to toe. “We’re free now.”

He takes a deep, relieved breath, then holds out his empty hand. “Let’s go,” he says to Aiba-chan.

Aiba-chan looks down at his hand. He’s smiling now, but it’s not his usual smile.

It’s sad, Ohno realizes with a wave of anxiety.

“Aiba-chan?”

“I can’t go with you,” Aiba-chan says quietly. “You don’t need me anymore.”

“What?” Ohno says, all the strength and adrenaline of a moment ago leaving him so suddenly he feels as if his knees might give out underneath him. “Yes I do. Of course I do."

Aiba-chan looks up at him and his eyes are sparkling now with unshed tears. “You don’t,” he says, proudly. 

He reaches out a hand to pat Ohno’s head, affectionate and a little too forceful.

“You can take care of yourself now,” he explains. “It’s time for me to go – to find someone else who needs my help.”

“You can’t!” Ohno says. He stomps his foot, feeling childish as his tears start falling freely again. “Not now. Not when we just – ” 

Aiba-chan shakes his head. “I have to. You can’t have an imaginary friend forever, you know!” 

He grins now, that blindingly bright grin of his, and steps forward to wipe the tears from Ohno’s face with the sleeve of his green sweater. 

“So kiss me and say goodbye,” he teases and Ohno give a wet giggle that quickly turns into a sob.

“Aiba-chan,” he says.

“Leader,” Aiba-chan says. 

Ohno takes a deep shaky breath. He pushes up on his toes, and gently presses their lips together. 

When he pulls back, Aiba-chan is gone.

**~ 1 MONTH LATER ~**

Sho puts the last of Ohno’s boxes out onto the sidewalk in front of Ohno’s apartment building and closes the trunk of his car.

“That’s the last of it,” he says, reaching up to wipe the sweat from his forehead. “You’re officially moved in!”

“Thanks, Sho-chan,” Ohno says. “Really. You too, Matsumoto-san.”

Jun gives him a stern look from behind the wide brim of his new hat. “Just don’t be late tomorrow, okay?” he says. “I expect my employees to be on time. And not to _kancho_ me. My bakery is not that kind of establishment.”

“Got it!” Ohno says, bowing low as Sho bursts out laughing.

Ohno straightens just in time to see a car that he recognizes as Kazama’s pull up beside them. Kazama jumps out from the driver’s seat.

“Hey, Satoshi-kun!” he says with a wave. “I found someone who’s been looking for you.”

Ohno gives him a puzzled look, but it’s then that the passenger side door opens and out steps his sister.

“Nee-chan?” Ohno asks in shock. 

His sister smiles and nods her head. “Hi Satoshi. Long time no see.” 

Before he can recover from the surprise enough to say anything else, the door to the backseat opens wide and a pair of small sneakered feet hit the pavement. Ohno follows them up to find a young girl, no more than 7 years old, in a pair of dirty overalls and with a mischievous grin already on her face.

“Satoshi, this is my daughter Sae,” his sister says. “Sae-chan, say hi to your Uncle Satoshi.”

“Hi, Uncle Satoshi,” Sae says in an uninterested tone. Then she turns to her mother with a pout. “Mama, you said that Aiba-chan and I could play in the park today!”

“Aiba-chan?” Ohno repeats, suddenly feeling light headed.

“CAPTAIN!” 

Ohno starts in surprise as someone appears beside the little girl before him. There is no mistaking the person in front of him – the warm eyes and mischievous grin, the light brown hair falling into his face as he leans forward into Sae’s space with enthusiasm.

“Captain!” Aiba-chan says again, excitedly. “I thought of a great experiment! Let’s see if that guy Kazapon can fit in the mailbox!” 

“Aiba-chan?” Ohno says in awe. 

Aiba-chan looks up at him then and waves. Then as quickly as he’s appeared, he’s gone again – though maybe only to Ohno’s eyes, if the suspicious way that Sae-chan’s sleeve is being tugged on by an invisible force is anything to go by.

Kazama puts a hand on Ohno’s shoulder. “Crazy, right?”

Ohno can only nod in agreement. He crouches down to Sae’s level. “Hey, Sae-chan.”

“Hm?” the girl says and the tugging on her sleeve stops.

“Take good care of Aiba-chan,” Ohno tells her seriously.

The little girl gives Ohno a curious look. “You know Aiba-chan too?” she asks him.

“He’s a really good friend of mine,” Ohno says with a smile. “Tell him I said hello, okay?”

Sae returns his smile brightly and nods her head. 

“I will!” she says happily before she skips off towards her mother who is talking with Sho and Jun nearby.

Ohno stands up again, smiling to himself as he watches her go. 

“Bye, Aiba-chan,” he says.

There’s sudden warmth beside him – a familiar, breathy giggle in his ear.

He feels a burst of strength, and walks off into his future.

**~ THE END ~**


End file.
